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Campaigns » Builder for the Great Khans - Singleplayer Campaign
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Builder for the Great Khans - Singleplayer Campaign
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| Author |
File Description |
| Gweilo2 |
Posted on 02/05/07 @ 07:17 AM (updated 02/03/08)
| File Details |
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| Age: |
Steel |
| # of Episodes: |
6 |
| # of Cities: |
5 |
| Difficulty: |
Very Hard |
| Custom Maps: |
Yes |
Minimap:
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In this sequel to 'Trader for the Great Khan', you begin as the son of the famous merchant prince who reopened the western trade routes for the mighty Genghis Khan. In the years since Genghis's death, the Mongols have grown even more powerful. They have sent word that they are in need of a skilled builder, and you have answered their call - armed only with your family's reputation and a burning ambition. Will that be enough? Challenges based on actual historic events of the 13th century await you!
A player will interact with 13 cities (12 historically-accurate), which includes construction of the famous mongol cities of Karakhorum, Shangdu, and Khan-Baliq. Resources, commodities, and available structures follow the Emperor model for the Steel Age. This campaign features five new custom maps of various sizes and climates. Sabotage by spies has been disallowed for this campaign, although spies can still be used for information gathering.
For chronological continuity, this campaign should be played after concluding the 'Trader for the Great Khan' custom campaign.
The download zip file contains an extra file named 'BFGK_Readme.txt'. This text file contains installation instructions, historical background information, campaign design notes, general play tips, and mission hints (warning: contains spoilers). Additionally, other hints are available by viewing the album of playtest screenshots in the Emperor Heaven gallery.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This campaign is rated 'Very Hard', and is designed to provide a solid challenge for advanced players. For the best play experience, a player should possess an advanced understanding of time-constrained missions, money management, military operations, trading, labor allocation, monument construction, summoning and using the Heroes, and empire-map diplomacy. There is some military action in this campaign, but it is not combat-heavy.
Missions Teasers (note: the first five missions have a time-limit)
Mission 1 - 'The Mongol's Forge' - 6 years, from 1229 CE to the end of 1234 CE
Mission 2 - 'Karakhorum Reborn' - 7 years, from 1235 CE to the end of 1241 CE
Mission 3 - 'Ghosts of the Tanguts' - 9 years, from 1242 CE to the end of 1250 CE
Mission 4 - 'A Stately Pleasure Dome Decreed...' - 10 years, from 1251 CE to the end of 1260 CE
Mission 5 - 'An Empire Divided' - 4 years, from 1261 CE to the end of 1264 CE
Mission 6 - 'Master Builder of the Mongols' - no time limit, starts in 1265 CE.
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| Pages: [1] 2 » Last » | | Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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| ivrunafowl |
Posted on 04/23/07 @ 09:32 PM
(All of Gweilo's Campaigns play well IMHO.)
Balance: 4
(I'm not sure what this field really reflects?)
Creativity: 5
(Without a doubt Gweilo spends a great deal of effort to creat a campaign worth playing.)
Map Design: 5
(The maps are pleasing to the eye and often feel as if I'm there as it once was.)
Story/Instructions: 5
(Here is where Gweilo gets me hooked in the playing the campaigns. The fact that this subject matter really is a passion of his. The added text for the history of the period gives a sense of what took place. I do read the spoilers, I have to admit.)
Additional Comments:
Gweilo I want to thank you very much for giving many hours of playing enjoyment.I should have left reviews of your campaigns long ago. Sorry.
I would also like to thank the play testers as well. I'd love to paly test myself.
I must admit that reading Shaun's play tips have helped my game as well and would love to learn how to play faster. It always seems as if I can startoff ok, as I do try to plan it out before starting, but seem to bog down in the middle and late stages of the game[Edited on 05/28/08 @ 01:23 PM]
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Gweilo2
Staff
File Author |
Posted on 04/24/07 @ 07:20 AM
Here is a link that gives some guidelines on how you can assess each category when making a formal review:
http://emperor.heavengames.com/dl/guidelines/guide4[Edited on 04/24/07 @ 07:24 AM]
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| Tekee |
Posted on 08/07/07 @ 05:03 PM
Downloading right now! |
| Tekee |
Posted on 01/28/08 @ 09:34 PM |
Gweilo2
Staff
File Author |
Posted on 01/29/08 @ 07:58 AM |
| Beijing Tag |
Posted on 02/01/08 @ 02:20 AM
Played the first three missions but then my computer went gaga and it has gone off to be fixed. Will complete and post a review in due course.
Anyway, an odd thing happened when I first played mission 2. Nine trading partners are needed as a winning requirement. With two years to go I had met all requirements bar that one. Kaifeng was dormant so I assumed this was a game variable (making silk trade more difficult or something) and that it would fire up towards the end of the mission. But this never happened and the mission ended with the failure splash screen. Replaying saw the same result. Very odd.
Went back to look at Mission 1 and it turned out that I had finished about eighteen months early (yippee, no invasion). But.... at this time Kaifeng had fallen dormant. This had carried over into M2 meaning that it effectively did not exist and so nine trading partners were not possible.
Hadn't experienced this situation before. I'm not a game designer so am not familiar with game scripting mechanics but perhaps there is a way to ensure that dormant cities refire up between missions.
Replayed M1, M2 and finished M3 before computer went belly up. Look forward to completing the campaign, excellent so far.[Edited on 02/01/08 @ 02:22 AM]
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Gweilo2
Staff
File Author |
Posted on 02/01/08 @ 11:36 AM
Usually, I am careful to avoid situations like you describe by inserting scripting to do an event that fires at 'mission completion' to activate any city that needs to be there for the next mission. I try to do this even if I've scripted the cities to activate/deactivate earlier in the mission, because the possibility of 'early finishes' are always a consideration when a mission has a time-limit goal.
However, I looked at the scripting I have in place for mission 1 and see I missed this. I have scripting in place to activate Jiangling, Lin'an, and Fuzhou at the end of mission 1, but not Kaifeng. That was an oversight on my part, for which I apologize. However, I see why I might have missed it. Kaifeng will only be inactive for a short gap of 5 game-months, between July and December of 1233. Kaifeng is scripted to go inactive in July of 1233, but it will reactivate again in December of 1233. So you must have won the mission sometime between July and December of 1233, and that triggered the problem you encountered in mission 2.
EDIT: I have updated the campaign pak file so that Kaifeng will activate at the end of mission 1, regardless of when a player wins the mission. So this problem should be resolved. [Edited on 02/17/09 @ 07:07 AM]
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| Beijing Tag |
Posted on 02/02/08 @ 10:18 AM
Have dugout an ancient laptop whilst my usual one goes to be fixed so I can have a go at this campaign over the Spring Festival. Once complete will post a review (very positive so far) and maybe some completed cities. |
Gweilo2
Staff
File Author |
Posted on 02/02/08 @ 01:23 PM
Stay warm over there, and stay out of the snowstorms![Edited on 02/03/08 @ 07:30 AM]
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| Beijing Tag |
Posted on 02/19/08 @ 05:55 AM
A range of very enjoyable missions. All of them with distinct challenges, I particularly enjoyed the first and third missions.
Later missions featured a lot of price increases and decreases that a player could use to adjust trading strategy and profitability. Sometimes I felt this was a little over used and eventually I just ignored them and traded at standard prices. Hardly a withering criticism!
Balance: 4
Well designed use of resources and particularly well thought out trade/resource allocation when moving from city to city. Perhaps a little light on military action for the combat bunnies.
Creativity: 5
Excellent use of trade/resource allocation. As the story develops and access to cities increase the available goods add naturally to the meet the needs of the cities. The luxury goods limitations in the final mission is an interesting idea.
Map Design: 4
As always from Gweilo, realistic and beautiful looking maps. I enjoyed the challenges set by the terrain limited maps in missions one and three in particular.
Story/Instructions: 5
By happenstance I'm currently reading "Kublai Khan" by John Man, so it was a delight to see how the story here reflects the reality of the rise of the Yuan dynasty (the Mongol's conquest of China).
Additional Comments: Completed cities from each mission have been posted so below are some general comments about the missions.
Mission 1, Yin - a delightful little map that provides a real space management challenge. I hadn't played Emperor for a while and this was a great way to get re-acquainted with the game.
Mission 2, Karakorum - a trading player's dream and clever use of the vultures as an irritant. Not overdone, but enough of a nuisance that it forces the player to do something about them.
Mission 3, Ningxia - possibly my favourite of the missions, again a space layout challenge.
Mission 4, Kaicheng - a great map and plenty of options on where to build.
Mission 5, Kaicheng besieged - fun for the combat bunnies and a relatively short mission. Feels a little bit like an afterthought as if the designer felt the need to throw in a significant combat element to the campaign. Still fun though.
Mission 6, Khan Baliq - a hearty challenge in terms of continuity of luxury goods supply. Took me a while to warm to this mission but I can appreciate it now that I've cracked it.
Overall, a cracking set of missions and maps. My only criticism would be that perhaps a little overscripted at times, especially the price changes in certain missions.
Now that I've finished I'm off to add my current apartment to the Khan Baliq map which is better known now as Beijing. I think it's located just to the west of the quarry...[Edited on 05/28/08 @ 11:25 AM]
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| Pages: [1] 2 » Last » |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
| Rating |
|---|
| 4.6 | | Breakdown |
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| Playability | 4.7 | | Balance | 3.7 | | Creativity | 5.0 | | Map Design | 4.7 | | Story/Instructions | 5.0 |
| Statistics |
| Downloads: | 5,129 |
| Favorites: [] | 0 |
| Size: | 869.64 KB |
| Added: | 02/05/07 |
| Updated: | 02/03/08 |
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